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Sunday, April 19, 2015

Fearsome journeys

I finished another thing on my to do list. Yes, I know it's horribly anal of me to have a to-do list for things that should be fun but I need some order in my life right now.

This thing that I finished is the book Fearsome Journeys: The new Solaris book of fantasy. It's full of short stories (novellas?) by a range of fantasy writers. Some were great, some were OK, some were bloody awful. The good ones were:

The Dragonslayer of Merebarton by KJ Parker - this an irreverent dragon killing story, by someone who seems to consider it an inconvenience.

Leaf and branch and grass and vine by Kate Elliott - this has a very serious, quiet tone to it. It's about a woman in a war torn country, living in a rural area terrorised by the King's defenders. She finds a good man, General Ollivar and takes him to safety, I think one of the characters is trans, but gender identity isn't an important plot point.

Spirits of Salt - a take of the Coral heart by Jeffrey Ford - this got interesting towards the end, when the coral aspect got clearer, I think I liked it more for the idea than the actual story though.

Forever People by Robert V S Redick - I love this one. It's about motherhood and what you'll do for your sons, and grief, and lust and duty and responsibility.

Sponda the suet girl and the secret of the French pearl by Ellen Kages - A guy goes to steal a treasure and gets it royally wrong. This is cheeky and mischievous (and I probably don't need to use both those adjectives here, but I like them, so nyaah) and while told from the point of the view of the guy thief it shows up his greed and naivety. Delightful.

5 good stories out of 12 is not bad I think. I'd like to read more by Kate Elliot, Robert V S Redick and Ellen Klages. The authors in the anthology that I didn't take to are Scott Lynch, Saladin Ahmed, Trudi Canavan, Glen Cook, Elizabeth Bear, Ellen Jushner & Ysabeau S. Wilce (writing together) and Daniel Abraham.